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Welcome to The AEOLIAN Harp
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“Calaveras County’s oldest & most Unique Music Store”
Established in 1989 Located in historic Angels Camp, CA – in the heart of the Mother Lode Sierra foothills... Named after A E O L U S Greek God of the Wind |
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Sierra Lodestar’s Best of the Mother Lode Aeolian Harp was just voted Best Music Store. (2nd year in a row !) NEW, USED and Vintage Instruments:
Guitars, Basses, Mandolins, Banjos, Violins, Flutes (Band/Orchestra, Native American, Panpipes), Harmonicas, Ocarinas, Resonators guitars, Dean & Luna Guitars & stringed instruments; Concertinas, Accordions. Music Lessons, Accessories and Repairs: For more information visit our Services Page Click HERE Percussion & World Instruments:
Drum Sticks, Steel Pan Drum, Kalimbas (Mbiru), Djembes, Doumbek, Udu (Ibo) drums, Cajon (box drum),Slit drums, Hand Drums, Native Gourd drums, Tin Whistles, Shakers of all kinds. Unique Artful Gifts & Children's Toys etc. Incense, Oils & Natural Scents, Sage Wands & Bundles, Local artwork & prints, Cards, journals, CD’s. A special Hands-On Children’s Section - - Tambourines, Spoons, shakers, melody harps, children’s harmonicas and thoughtful, natural toys. Print Music:
Method Books & Music for Piano, Guitar, Bass, Mandolin, Ukulele, Banjo and Violin - Tunebooks, Instruction & DVD’s. Special Orders welcomed. |
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In addition to being Calaveras County's oldest running MUSIC STORE
Walking into Chrys Mollett's shop on Main Street will take you on a Cross-Cultural TOUR of the world - with TUNED WINDCHIMES from our own mother lode town of Mariposa; |
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RATTLES & SHAKERS of all kinds; NATIVE AMERICAN instruments; Native FLUTES
FRAME DRUMS & DANCE RATTLES; IBO/Udu drums native to Nigeria; hand turned DJEMBES made in Ghana; TALKING DRUMS from India and Pakistan. Mid Eastern and local made DOUMBEKS.
While in the store, you can play the Dan-Mo, a musical percussion PLAY STATION from Viet Nam.
TONG (Tongue) or Tone Drums originated in Central America & is officially a wood-slit-GONG.
Yes, we do sell brass GONGS. Painstakingly turned in the middle east & China; DRAGON BELLS from Korea,;ELEPHANT BELLS from India; TINGSHA and Prayer Flags from Nepal.
Tuned SINGING BOWLS are usually made of hand pounded metal, brass or quartz crystal. Often used in meditation & healing, The ultra-grand version of rubbing your finger around the rim of a crystal wineglass. Beautiful, haunting, powerful !
The crystal bowls, recycled from our computer industry, are the crucible used for growing silica to be made into microchips. People often buy them in a favorite key:
C-D-E-F-G-A-B, and they correspond to the color spectrum (Red-Orange-Yellow-Green-
Blue-Ultra Violet) and to the individual CHAKRAS in the chakra system. My favorite is the G bowl – which houses the Throat Chakra, the color BLUE, and Self-Expression/Anger/Creativity/Thyroid.
A favorite in the SCHOOL PROGRAMS I do is the CUICA DRUM. Looks much like a normal round skin-topped drum, but with a 'belly button' attached to a bamboo reed.
When rubbed from the inside, we get a sound much like a monkey squawking.
STEEL PAN DRUMS – Native to Trinidad/Jamaica. Playing one makes everybody
feel like DANCING in the surf & sunshine. Proving again that necessity is the mother of invention, STEEL PAN DRUMS were created by the slave/working class in Jamaica – who had been forbidden to play their traditional instruments - - It was clear to the ruling classes that people who played music together were EMPOWERED, could UNITE and coin their own LANGUAGE. One by one, their instruments were taken away, until at last they were able to create this one from an old OIL DRUM. Add heat and extensive pounding until the metal molecules fuse and anneal – then Tune them to chromatic scale or chords. My favorite is a low G Chord pan drum. You can play the I, IV, & V chords in G, C, & D – as well as relative minors.
We are a dealer for DUSTY STRINGS HARPS, made in Seattle Washington USA.
And Dusty Strings HAMMER DULCIMERS
CONCERTINAS hark back to the days when men sailed off on the wild, unknown seas, not to return for years. Used in reels & jigs, Celtic and eastern European music. Great for kid-tunes too.
I call the concertina my 'elbow harmonica'. When the US was still shaking from 911,
I took one home, sat on my porch deck & played. The sweet sound made me feel like I was back in another era, perhaps a simpler time....
Traditionally DIDGERIDOOS are made from a fallen branch of the gum tree or eucalyptus in the Australian outback & New Zealand. The perfect Didge branch has been hollowed or eaten out by termites. Then a mouthpiece is formed of beeswax. Today you'll hear didges played in everything from global rock, Celtic, to native traditional & fusion jazz, Some of our DIDGERIDOOS are hand made locally by our Symphony of the Sierra Conductor, Jeff Johnson. Indestructible ! Beautifully decorated & with a deep drone. Easy to learn how to play. Start by blowing a 'raspberry' with a very loose LOOSE flapping of the lips.. Practice until you can get a drone every time you try; then add your voice into it (making a dual tone of drone plus vocal tone); then start moving your tongue inside your mouth in a you-You-YOU or diddle-e-oo sound (creating a tri-tone of drone + voice + augmentation & ornamentation)
Only then might you want to try learning CIRCULAR BREATHING – Hauling IN air at the same time as spitting OUT air. This allows the player to DIDGE on & on & on, making a continuous drone & without having to stop to catch a breath.
You Didge players ought to try doing SOUND THERAPY on your partner's back.
It feels like Ultra-Sound. Honest. It's like a quick free visit to the chiropractor or getting an instant massage!
FRAME DRUMS & DANCE RATTLES; IBO/Udu drums native to Nigeria; hand turned DJEMBES made in Ghana; TALKING DRUMS from India and Pakistan. Mid Eastern and local made DOUMBEKS.
While in the store, you can play the Dan-Mo, a musical percussion PLAY STATION from Viet Nam.
TONG (Tongue) or Tone Drums originated in Central America & is officially a wood-slit-GONG.
Yes, we do sell brass GONGS. Painstakingly turned in the middle east & China; DRAGON BELLS from Korea,;ELEPHANT BELLS from India; TINGSHA and Prayer Flags from Nepal.
Tuned SINGING BOWLS are usually made of hand pounded metal, brass or quartz crystal. Often used in meditation & healing, The ultra-grand version of rubbing your finger around the rim of a crystal wineglass. Beautiful, haunting, powerful !
The crystal bowls, recycled from our computer industry, are the crucible used for growing silica to be made into microchips. People often buy them in a favorite key:
C-D-E-F-G-A-B, and they correspond to the color spectrum (Red-Orange-Yellow-Green-
Blue-Ultra Violet) and to the individual CHAKRAS in the chakra system. My favorite is the G bowl – which houses the Throat Chakra, the color BLUE, and Self-Expression/Anger/Creativity/Thyroid.
A favorite in the SCHOOL PROGRAMS I do is the CUICA DRUM. Looks much like a normal round skin-topped drum, but with a 'belly button' attached to a bamboo reed.
When rubbed from the inside, we get a sound much like a monkey squawking.
STEEL PAN DRUMS – Native to Trinidad/Jamaica. Playing one makes everybody
feel like DANCING in the surf & sunshine. Proving again that necessity is the mother of invention, STEEL PAN DRUMS were created by the slave/working class in Jamaica – who had been forbidden to play their traditional instruments - - It was clear to the ruling classes that people who played music together were EMPOWERED, could UNITE and coin their own LANGUAGE. One by one, their instruments were taken away, until at last they were able to create this one from an old OIL DRUM. Add heat and extensive pounding until the metal molecules fuse and anneal – then Tune them to chromatic scale or chords. My favorite is a low G Chord pan drum. You can play the I, IV, & V chords in G, C, & D – as well as relative minors.
We are a dealer for DUSTY STRINGS HARPS, made in Seattle Washington USA.
And Dusty Strings HAMMER DULCIMERS
CONCERTINAS hark back to the days when men sailed off on the wild, unknown seas, not to return for years. Used in reels & jigs, Celtic and eastern European music. Great for kid-tunes too.
I call the concertina my 'elbow harmonica'. When the US was still shaking from 911,
I took one home, sat on my porch deck & played. The sweet sound made me feel like I was back in another era, perhaps a simpler time....
Traditionally DIDGERIDOOS are made from a fallen branch of the gum tree or eucalyptus in the Australian outback & New Zealand. The perfect Didge branch has been hollowed or eaten out by termites. Then a mouthpiece is formed of beeswax. Today you'll hear didges played in everything from global rock, Celtic, to native traditional & fusion jazz, Some of our DIDGERIDOOS are hand made locally by our Symphony of the Sierra Conductor, Jeff Johnson. Indestructible ! Beautifully decorated & with a deep drone. Easy to learn how to play. Start by blowing a 'raspberry' with a very loose LOOSE flapping of the lips.. Practice until you can get a drone every time you try; then add your voice into it (making a dual tone of drone plus vocal tone); then start moving your tongue inside your mouth in a you-You-YOU or diddle-e-oo sound (creating a tri-tone of drone + voice + augmentation & ornamentation)
Only then might you want to try learning CIRCULAR BREATHING – Hauling IN air at the same time as spitting OUT air. This allows the player to DIDGE on & on & on, making a continuous drone & without having to stop to catch a breath.
You Didge players ought to try doing SOUND THERAPY on your partner's back.
It feels like Ultra-Sound. Honest. It's like a quick free visit to the chiropractor or getting an instant massage!
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A bit of History....
The first aeolian harp may have been discovered by a wandering shepherd who came upon the carcass of an animal – and he heard the amazing sound of the wind blowing across the sinew of the beast. The wind blowing through the old barbed wire fences in Bodie - also aeolian. The sound is unlike any other instrument. It is, in fact, the Undertones that are heard when breezes blow across the strings. In Victorian days, Aeolian harps were made to fit a window sash in homes - and the strings could be tuned to a pleasant chord – When the breezes blew through the window, the harp would Play.... Never mass produced, an aeolian harp is any instrument played by the fingers of the wind. Hence – Our Voices are aeolian instruments... Wind chimes are aeolian instruments... you can download and read ‘The Aeolian Harp’ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge – romantic poet. It is still just Beautiful. Link below. |
| the_aeolian_harp_poetry.pdf |
